Monday, September 7, 2009

Top reason why a project fail

Reason Why a Project Fail

In everyday life there are a lot of changes that always take place. The change have become more and more significant when there is monetary value involve. This have been a big challenge to anybody and it always the case that wether we want to face it or run away from it. When oneself decide to do away with the changes and run away from the challenges, we will never going to improve or move forward but instead of being successful we are already doom before we go to the battle field. In Construction Industry the same principal is applicable.
In managing a construction project, client, consultant and contractor, all of them will never run away from facing the unique of the challenges. They always try to find a way to solve the issue. For the new comer in this industry, there is no project that is going to be the same with the other. Each of them will come with a unique problem due to the nature of this field, that is, we are dealing with human and nature which is unpredictable. Therefore we must be ready to face the challenge.
The worst nightmare for client, Consultant and Contractor and they always try to avoid is project failure. Before we go further into this topic, let us define what "Project Failure"is.
Under this scope of discussion, "Project", simply mean a construction work in whole and "Project Failure " mean construction that was done or completed or even being call off because of it does not meet the real target or purpose of it or due to the budget constrain either on the contractor side or client side.
From contractor prospective, project failure is a construction project that does not bring in positive income or profit but only losing more money and tarnish contractor reputation. The same idea goes with consultant. However for the owner or client or stakeholder, project failure means that the project which has been completed or not completed and handed over to them is a project that does not serve the correct purpose or functionality. It only becomes a waste of time and money.
With the simple definition of "project failure", now we are ready to go and dig deep inside what the root cause is of or the reason why a project fail. The main root cause of this is failure to plan. What is the significant of planing with project failure? Project planing not just about doing the estimate budget and estimate of time required to complete a project, but it allow the owner of the project to see the following;

what is the purpose of the project,

The scope of work of the project,

What are the degree of cost that will involve,

What are the resources they need in order to make the project a successful project,

The duration needed to complete the whole project,

What are the rule and regulation they have to fulfil,

How they can reduce the project cost without jeopardise the quality of work, and

What are the risk they have to take and how to mitigate it and last but not least

What is the return they will get if they invest in this project?

Even with all the listed above there is still risk that nobody can predict before the event take place. The risk that I mentioned here is risk of uncertainty that ranging from global economic to the labour of workforce issue.